Stockholm annnnnnd Estonia!

Before the 36 photos of Stockholm and Estonia in this post, I’d first like to show you one of those random things that happens to me here in Uppsala. I was standing outside my door, when I saw a man running really fast while moving really slowly. He bounced past my door, and I took off sprinting to catch up to the strange man. As usual I had my point-and-shoot camera in my pocket. I caught up to him and we had a conversation for a few minutes before he bounded off again. Here are a photo and video to explain:

On the 8th I went to Stockholm with Lucy and Manu to walk around town a bit then attend a lecture about Northern Uganda at Stockholm University. We decided to go to the Vasa Museum, a museum built around the salvaged and restored shipwreck of the Vasa, a warship that sank to the ocean floor on the first day of its maiden voyage in 1628. On the way there, of course, I had to take a couple of photos, such as this ridiculous sign warning quayside pedestrians that cars without drivers fall into the water:

Stockholm is built on a series of islands, so naturally there are a number of bridges to cross, for the trains too.

This is a neat peace (intentional misspelling) of street art. It’s spray paint with the use of a stencil, and the green peas were drops of some other sort of paint I guess. Interestingly (for me) I googled it and found this, which is the exact same location. I wonder if it was him?

We got to the Vasa Museum after a lot of walking and a rather expensive (~CAD $5) and very short (30 seconds) public transit ferry ride. We were short on time so we sort of ran through and tried to see as much as possible before rushing off to the T-bana to get to the University for the lecture.

A miniature replica of the ship:

The actual ship, which I couldn’t fit into the frame of my point-and-shoot, it’s massive:

We were 20 minutes late for the lecture on Northern Uganda by Dr Chris Blattman, but what we did catch was interesting. Lots of statistics, of which I’m not a huge fan, but also quite interesting… other stuff. After the lecture, the four of us students (Marie had joined us for the lecture) sat with Dr Blattman in his temporary office for quite a long time speaking with him about various things to do with Northern Uganda and thesis research and whatnot. Really interesting guy, and super friendly (plus he has a neat blog).

Now onto less text, more photos. On the 11th, 16 of us hopped on trains to Stockholm followed by a bus followed by a very big boat. This one was not a shipwreck, but a cruiseliner operated by Tallink. For about €30 each we got a return ticket from Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia sharing cabins of 4 beds each.

The boat left Stockholm at 6pm and arrived in Tallinn around 9am, when we headed out on the town to explore for the day in the bright sun. I took a lot of photos during the day, including a LOT of doors and windows. I don’t know why, but I really liked the doors, windows, and rooftops in Tallinn!

Saku is an Estonian beer, which we tried on the boat. Nothing unique really.

This neat modern monument is Johan Pitka, a hero of the Estonian War of Independence who lived in Canada from 1924-1930 and disappeared in 1944 as the Red Army advanced into Estonia after the Nazis retreated.

I liked this girl’s bag:

And now for a few funny shots. Not sure if this sign is deliberate or not:

Definitely the worst parking job I have ever seen. And no, cars are NOT supposed to park like that on this street.

Apparently the city of Tallinn couldn’t let itself be outdone by Stockholm’s car sign (earlier in this post), so they warn you to watch out for people who think they can walk on water… so you can take a photo as they drown?